Saturday, July 26

I don't write a lot about it here. It seems odd since it's a subject at the top of my list of most important things to understand and to do well.

I have been reluctant to violate the privacy of my children and, frankly, not sure I wanted to expose my ignorance on this subject to the world.

Of course, immediately upon writing that, I realize it is completely inconsistent with the rest of my writing. I don't mind admitting my ignorance on a host of other subjects - politics, economics, etc. Why is parenting so sacred?

Well, for one, it's personal. If I make a mistake in politics, and all I do is vote periodically, then the worst that can happen is that my incorrect vote will hopefully be drowned out by the votes of many others.

If I raise my children wrong, however, then it's all my fault. Err. Never realized I thought about it quite that way.

The point is, I realize that just like politics, I might learn more in the process of writing about it, and getting the occasional criticism than if I kept it all to myself.

Besides, at the least, I can find interesting other articles and blogs about parenting and share my thoughts on those - without violating my children's' privacy.

Knowing what is better has proved to be a very difficult problem to solve. In fact, I'm not entirely certain it is solvable by me - or even by one individual. Knowledge can be quite difficult to achieve and my thoughts are ever changing, updating, to take in the next bit of information and experience. In fact, I state this in my warning. I don't state it in quite the same way and I left off how my writing process works when I do edit (and yes, occasionally, I do manage to edit without completely stripping everything I said and still manage to publish the post).

I’m sorry about the editing problems. I just run out of time. You see, when I go to edit a post, I usually end up rewriting it. I remove all of the old mistakes (because I simply block off whole sections of text and delete them) but introduce new mistakes in their wake. At the end of the day, when I am finishing up my post, my head is typically bouncing off the desk as I fall asleep at the keyboard. That has something of an adverse effect on quality. I’m sorry about that.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who runs into that problem. This fellow seems better educated, at least formally, than I have been. Which leads me to another train of thought which I sometimes toy with and am thinking about pursuing more actively.

The idea is that perhaps the problem of "better" is too big a problem for me to solve and therefore, I shouldn't spend too much time on it. I've only got one life, as far as I know, and is the pursuit of truth the only thing I want out of it? Don't I want to enjoy it? Experience it? Just live? How? Which way?

I think about Socrates' wife sometimes, and his children. What must it have been like for her? As a woman in those times, she would have been totally dependent on a man for her care, and he failed her - so he could pursue knowledge. It may have been wonderful for the rest of humanity, it may have launched humanity into a whole new, greater level of existence in the long run, but what good did that do her? Or his children? They lived a life of poverty when, if she'd married a different man, she might have had more from life, both in material possessions and in care. Even if Socrates' wasn't one to provide her a good living, he also failed to provide her with companionship, with caring, with love. At least, that's what one would guess given his apparent neglect of his family.

Would he have been "better" as a person, if he'd taken care of his family? What would that have done to his ideas? Would they have been more mediocre? More of the same? Or would he have taken them even further - by making them practical, practicable, useful to his wife? We'll never know.

For me, a lot of the everyday things are quite difficult. Oh, sure, I "can" cook passably, sew, write a simple program, mow a yard, get kids ready for school, and quite a few other little household things. What I find difficult, mostly, is making myself do them.

I wonder if that's what happened with Socrates. Perhaps he lacked motivation and self-discipline, but he was clever and could get a crowd of other men to listen to him and make him feel better about his failings. His wife may have had more moral character than he did, in that respect. I wonder what she would have to say on that subject.

Tuesday, July 1

Ok, another not-so-profound question wrote itself. I wonder if this is going to be a pattern. I have certainly giggled today but am sorry to say I haven't quite worked up to a full out guffaw about anything. However, this one got a chuckle..

Q: How do you tell the difference between a liberal and a conservative?A: Easy. Watch a man drowning fifty feet offshore.

The conservative will throw out 25 feet of rope and shout "swim for it!"

The liberal will toss out 50 feet of rope, drop his own end, and go off to do another good deed.